1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the behavior of an occupant of a vehicle to encourage compliance with desired operating conditions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Several vehicles are known that encourage vehicle occupants to comply with desired operating conditions, for example, proper use of the seat belt. The vehicles that contain these systems contain at least one occupant input device to which the occupant can apply some input such as an accelerator pedal, on/off button, or a volume knob to establish some operational mode such as vehicle speed, air-conditioning fan being on, or the radio being at an audible level proportional to vehicle speed.
These systems also include sensors to detect directly when any occupant input has been applied to the input device or indirectly what effect that input has had. For example, some systems will detect directly how far an occupant has depressed an accelerator pedal, while others will instead measure the vehicle speed which is generally but indirectly established by the occupant applying input to the accelerator.
The purpose is to encourage the vehicle occupant to comply with desired operating conditions. So, besides having an input device that can establish an operational mode, the vehicle also has an auxiliary device such as a seat belt or a gas cap. In addition, in order for the system to encourage desired occupant behavior, it also includes sensors that establish whether the auxiliary mode is established or not. For example, sensors sense if the seat belt is fastened or if the gas cap is closed.
Vehicles of this type include a system that affirmatively encourages the occupant to comply with the desired operating conditions. This encouragement comes in the form of a system to apply resistance to the operator input device. For example, the movement of the gear selector may be blocked, the depressing of the accelerator pedal may be met with resistance, or the turning of a knob might be met with greater resistance. Other examples are visual or audio alarms.
Lastly, a control module responds to the sensors that sense the operational and auxiliary modes to actuate the system when the operational conditions are not met. The control module uses a signal generator to actuate the system. Also it is common for such control modules to be capable of counting events, storing collected data, and performing calculations on data. A comparator for such control module relates one set of data to another to establish ratios that the control module then uses to actuate the resistive device in response to the data.
Several vehicles with methods of operation that encourage the use of occupant constraints are known. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,515 to Yamonoi discloses an apparatus that applies resistance to the operation of an accelerator pedal when the driver seat belt is not fastened. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,977,582 to Katsuhisa discloses notifications to vehicle occupants that change according to vehicle speed.
There are also numerous examples of vehicles that block the shifting of the transmission of the vehicle when the seat belt is not fastened. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,355 to to Van Houten wherein the blocking of the shifting of the vehicle transmission depends on the frequency of fastening the seat belt. Other devices are known that recognize and accommodate operator traits.
The prior art struggles at effectively encouraging certain conditions in the operation of the vehicle to be met while not burdening or annoying the occupant under circumstances where these conditions are not beneficial. The prior art was inadequate because it failed to encourage occupants to comply with desired vehicle operating conditions to the extent that was needed. This could not be accomplished because under the amount of encouragement required by some would be an unacceptable intrusion to other occupants who need only very mild encouragement (like a reminder).